Three-temperature modeling of laser-induced damage process in silicon

TL;DR

This paper models laser-induced damage in silicon using a three-temperature approach, capturing the dynamics of electrons, holes, and lattice, and aligns well with experimental damage thresholds across different pulse durations.

Contribution

It introduces a three-temperature model for silicon damage that accurately predicts damage thresholds and elucidates the roles of electron emission and thermal melting.

Findings

Damage threshold depends on laser pulse duration.

Electron-phonon relaxation time influences electron emission.

Electron emission and thermal melting both cause damage.

Abstract

Laser excitation in silicon from femto- to pico-second time scales is studied. We assume the Three-Temperature Model (3TM) which describes the dynamics of the distinct quasi-temperatures for electrons, holes, and lattice. Numerical results for damage threshold reproduce the experimental results not only quantitatively, but qualitatively as well, showing dependence on laser pulse duration. Comparison with experimental data suggests that electron emission and thermal melting are both responsible for damage in silicon. We found that electron-phonon relaxation time has a significant effect on pulse duration dependence of electron emission.